December 16, 2010

Emoticons Nothing To Smile At

Writers Andrea Bartz and Brenna Ehrlich took a poll on CNN of 500 people to determine what the most-hated emoticons are.

The two writers also challenged users not to use the digital form of expressing emotion via keyboard throughout the rest of 2010.

I fully support this charitable act for those, like me, who wish this form of digital expression would have been aboard the Russian Proton rocket that plummeted into the ocean off the coast of Hawaii December 12th.

Their notion to "eradicate the emoticon" might be one of the nobler things taking place at the closing of 2010.

The infamous ;) might be my favorite to see scratched off incoming text, which inevitably will always be followed by a :( once it receives no reply.

If only there was an iPhone app that could transform emoticons like >:( into "this doesn't please me," or maybe even :/ to a simple "I'm confused about what exactly you're writing about."

I would tend to agree with the writers when they say the most inappropriate situation to use emoticons is at the work place, however I believe any form of the emotional keyboard characters should be obliterated from our digital vocabulary once embarking out of those teenage years.

Let us join this movement to rid ourselves of these punctuated facial expressions and make way for a new era: one in which our subtle emotions are demonstrated through words and not a conglomeration of shift-key characters.

For those of you who wish to continue on using this childish form of digital body language, I leave you with this: :P